Psych yourself into new habits!

I made a cheat sheet of the high points which I’m printing out to remind myself of these excellent pointers which I will, of course, include.

Highly successful people have things in common about the way they think. I don’t know if it just comes naturally for some people or they’ve discovered these pointers early on but I, for one, need all the motivation I can get.

Here’s the breakdown of concepts that highly successful people and people who continue to exercise after years and decades have:

These things are basically the opposite of a depressed state of mind.

I was especially interested in the intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards. I’m going to admit it: I hate exercising. The only way I used to get through it was to find some sort of extrinsic reward. It didn’t have to be much- maybe even a check mark on the calendar. Then again, I never stuck with it.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t put a check mark on the calendar every time I brush my teeth or get dressed. I can see how INTRINSIC rewards would truly change something you HAVE to do into a daily routine. (I don’t think keeping track is a bad thing and if that’s motivating for you I wouldn’t necessarily stop doing it. I believe what he was speaking of were bigger rewards like buying something new or having a free day, etc).

He said that people who regard themselves extrinsically tend to be less happy, less healthy and less resilient in the face of stress. Makes sense. They are relying on outside factors for their happiness.

Here are the “fixes” for the above if they don’t come naturally to you (this is my cheat sheet that I’ve printed out for myself as a reminder with a motivating photo of a fit woman):

Ok well I’m off to exercise! I started the day before yesterday with 50 deep squats. Yesterday I did an hour on the rowing machine. Today I’m going to do a dancing exercise video I bought myself for my birthday. It’s a fun one!